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People Express founder jailed for fraud
The founder of ill-fated airline startup People Express was sentenced to two years behind bars for wire fraud and defrauding the IRS.
Michael Morisi was also ordered to pay more than half a million dollars in restitution.
The airline collapsed in 2014, only than three months after launching flights at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.
The airport’s executive director Ken Spirito was earlier arrested for misleading the Peninsula Airport Commission after taking out a loan in the name of the airport which was then used to bail out People Express.
That eventually led to a state audit and the federal criminal investigation.
Morisi was charged in May 2019 with defrauding creditors and under-reporting income to the IRS.
More than a dozen other charges were dropped in a plea deal.
Morisi allegedly paid money to himself and other directors while knocking back demands from creditors saying the company was out of cash.
"The defendant played a key role in continuously promoting a start-up airline and paying himself a large salary to do so, that was never in a stable position to succeed," federal prosecutors said.
When delivering the sentence, the judge took into consideration Morisi’s cooperation with feberal agents and that he ‘appears to have expressed remorse for his conduct,’
People Express was evicted from the airport a few months after ceasing operations.
Morisi has links to the original People Express Airlines which was a well-known carrier in the 1980s that eventually merged with Continental Airlines.
However the two businesses were unrelated aside from sharing the same name.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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